New Zealand

I arrived into Auckland on Tuesday 13^th September to rain, wind and cold.  Not terribly impressed by that.  Spent the next few days in the city, catching up with rellies and friends, taking a look around and getting my insurance claim sorted (hopefully).  I must say, the inside of the Vero building is FLASH!  Wouldn’t mind working there…lol

I was struck by how many birds we have here.  Even when I was inside with the windows closed I could still here the wonderful tones of our wood pigeons (kereru), the tuis and the bellbirds just outside – ah…home at last :)

I rented a car and left Auckland on the 16^th, spending the next 9 days travelling south, sightseeing and catching up with friends along the way.

From Auckland I travelled to Mt. Maunganui, taking a detour up the Coromandel Peninsula for a look.  One word – beautiful!  Well, actually there are more words that need to be used so here goes…

Winding round the narrow road in the wild and woolley extremes that can grace any NZ shoreline from time to time, I was still struck by the beauty of it all.  Regardless of the weather, this country never ceases to amaze me.  The drive to the end of the peninsula reminded me a lot of the drive out to Portobello down in Dunedin, but with Pohutakawa trees lining the road most of the way.  The stomach definitely feels the same by the end of it that’s for sure!  Amidst the rain and wind there were some fine spells much to my delight and the camera was made full use of during these times lol…

From the Coromandel I took the Karangahake gorge route to Tauranga.  I discovered that there used to be quite a lot of gold mining in these parts and there’s still plenty of evidence around of this.  Unfortunately by the time I reached the walking tracks it was getting dark so that will have to be saved for another time.  Still, the drive through the gorge was lovely, albeit a little short.

Either side of the gorge farmlands and rolling hills greeted me warmly with their bright green grasses and oddly patterned cows.  There’s this type of cow I kept seeing that’s completely black front and rear and just has this band of white around it’s middle!

Most of my Saturday was spent at the Mount.  It really is a lovely place.  Beautiful light sand, clear azure waters sparkling in the sun (sadly no surf breaking today though), Tuis sing-songing merrily in your ear as they make the most of the early spring berries on offer.  Although there were still a few persistent showers and it wasn’t quite weather for shorts, the sun did make an appearance as we walked up on the island in the bay and it was just glorious sunning ourselves on a rock for a bit.  From the Mount I continued south towards Taupo.  Along the way there were many newborn lambs frolicking in the paddocks (SO CUTE!!!) and a gorgeous sunset just past Tokoroa.  Have I mentioned I love our country… :D 

I continued on from Taupo on Sunday morning enroute to Wanganui (Whanganui now for those you who don’t know).  I didn’t realise how sulphurous Taupo was.  You could smell it faintly here and there from time to time.  Not as bad as Rotorua though.  I also didn’t realise Taupo had heaps of geysers just randomly here and there about the place, on the roadside etc.  Crazy!

Unfortunately the weather didn’t play ball for me so my idea of seeing Tongariro, Ngarahuoe and Ruapehu in all their finery was smooshed. :(  It was still a beautiful drive through the National Park and I did get a small glimpse of Ruapehu through the clouds at one point.

From Wanganui I ventured east and was thinking of going all the way to Napier, but as there was a RWC match there today I decided better of it and ended up down a crazy windy farm road out to Castlepoint where I slept by the beach in my car to the sound of the lapping of gentle waves on the shoreline – magic.

My Monday morning greeted me with an amazing sunrise at Castlepoint.  From there I made my way south by way the coast, stopping off at Riversdale beach, Lake Ferry and Cape Pallisner, before heading across and back up the west coast towards Paraparaumu visiting the beaches along the way.

Having spent a few days in Wellington seeing friends, looking round the bays and visiting the Weta Cave, I then crossed the strait and jumped on the train bound for Christchurch.  Arrived over 2hrs late into Christchurch due to a freight-train/car collision at a level crossing further down the line.  It was a little surreal to see Christchurch without most of its old buildings and empty lots where there were once homes.  Still, a win to the All Blacks tonight and most seemed in generally good spirits.

Sunday 25^th September I arrived home safely to Gore, thus ending my trip of 300 days.  I left here last November 29^th around 0400 in the morning and arrived back around 1545 today.  Tony picked me up at Dunedin following my bus journey from Chch.  Not terribly much fun getting up this morning as my 0800 bus ended up being 0700 due to daylight savings – grrr…

Monday 26^th September 2011

Spent my first day back in reality sleeping in and then trawling through jobsites on the net applying for jobs.  You never realise how many odd jobs there are out there til you start looking for a job.  There really is a position for everything!  Now, if only I could find one for me………

Canada, the final instalment...

Sunday 31^st July – Sunday 11^th September

Wow, has it really been that long?!  Now my time here in Canada has come to an end and I shall be leaving on a jetplane tonight back to the fine, fair land of New Zealand (which would be tomorrow afternoon for those of you already there…).  So what have I been up to for the last month and a ½…

Well, the last three weeks of Summer Camp were a blast with the teenage groups – full-on but well worth every ounce of energy spent (and believe me, every ounce was definitely spent by the end! LOL).

After camp I had a couple of days off and then spent the next two weeks working in housekeeping again at the camp to put a little extra money in the pocket.

In the last block of camp there were a few sightings of black bears but I did not get to see them.  In fact, as I often ventured up into the woods by myself in the morning to set up the ziplines bears were the last thing I wanted to encounter.  There was also a black bobcat spotted one weekend but it didn’t seem to stick around for long.

Each weekend during the Summer I stayed with different people from camp whose parents very generously opened their homes to me.  Thank you to you all, you are a blessing.  During these weekends I had the pleasure of:  visiting neighbouring towns, going to Vancouver to watch the ‘Celebration of Light’ fireworks, hiking up Elk Mountain, and going to the Abbotsford Airshow for FREE.  The airshow is the largest of its kind in Canada, although I think the one at Wanaka is still larger.  My friend from camp had a carload pass and I was invited to go with so I jumped at the chance.  What a great day it was – my favourite plane was there (P-51 Mustang) and I got to sit in the cockpit of a giant US Herc and learn a bit about how they fly - fun!

My last Friday at camp, a couple of us went into Vancouver to check out the salsa scene.  It was okay and fun enough, but it made me miss Cuba oh so much.  It’s just not the same here and the style’s completely different.  It’s all about the moves rather than just enjoying dancing with your partner, sigh…  On a bright note, we did see coyotes in the middle of Vancouver, some raccoons and a skunk on our way home so all was not lost :)

Come Saturday the 3^rd September I said my farewells and have spent the last week at the Snelgroves as my base, travelling to Banff for a couple of days in between.  My goodness travel and accommodation is expensive in this country!  $252 return for a ‘cheap’ Greyhound bus ticket for an 11hr journey!  I just booked my bus back home from Chch and it only cost $15 bucks for 5hrs!  The hostel in Banff was $37 too so a word of warning to anyone thinking of travelling Canada – make sure you save a lot before you come here!

The scenery in Banff is lovely and lovelier if you make the effort to hike up Sulphur Mountain for the views from the top (it’s not very strenuous – at the moment I am completely unfit and was full of the worst cold I’ve had in about 5 years and still managed to make it up okay so there’s hope for you all out there…).  Of course, for those with more money and less inclination for exercise there is always the option of the Gondola too… ;P

Saw the fattest chipmunks you will ever see up the top.  They are so fat because silly tourists keep feeding them (kind of like the keas back home).  They are as cheeky as can be.  Just check out the photos and you will see what I mean.

Speaking of photos, I will get on to them soon.  My computer was hating on me today (again!) so things didn’t quite go to plan in the photo upload department. I’ll let you all know when they’re up and ready for viewing.

Other than chipmunks, squirrels and a mule deer stag, the closest I came to seeing ‘wild’life was on the wall of the Indian Fur Trading Post.  Most trails where you would see wildlife were unfortunately closed due to Grizzlies in the area, so although there seems to be a lot of wildlife around I never seem to be in the right spot to ‘spot’ them.

Righto, I think that’s all from me.  Now it’s time to go home and face driving the North Island amidst all the crazies on our roads for the RWC.  Yey, go ABs! :D

Canada cont...

Thursday 30^th June to Saturday 30^th July

Halfway through!  So, we’ve just ended a 4 day break which marks the halfway point for Summer Camp.  Our last camp was the peewees (5-7yr olds).  They were adorable.  And funnily enough we didn’t really have much homesickness to deal with (in our cabin at least) or any wet beds, unlike other weeks with older campers – interesting…

For anyone interested, so far we’ve had:-  Single Mums (or Moms as the case may be ;P), 8-10 year olds, 9-11 year olds, 10-12 year olds and 5-7 year olds (although that included some 4 and 8 year olds too).

Camp is great.  Stressful sometimes and definitely full-on 24/7 with not really any time to oneself except one day off a week to recharge the batteries for the next week ahead, but the kids are great and the staff I’m working with are good, plus we have a roof over our head and food in our stomach each day so no complaints here.

The camp here is very activities-focussed so most of my week is spent either assisting dance or up in a tree 30 or 60ft (that’s 10 or 20m for the metric ones of you out there) off the ground sending kiddies off ziplines or around the high ropes course we have here.  I LOVE being up on the 60ft zip!  In between groups you can just zone out the voices below and listen to the birds chirping, the trees rustling and, more often than not, the pitter patter of rain on the leaves – magic!

On that note, yes it has been wet, VERY wet!  Until the 4 day break we’ve just had in which the sun has shone, or at least attempted to, on all of those days, we didn’t think we were ever going to get a summer.  Even people’s vege gardens aren’t growing due to the cold and the Snelgrove’s cherry tree is already turning because it thinks it’s Autumn!

Our final 3 weeks are tween and teen camps (11-13, 12-14 & 14-16) so please pray for us in those; that the Lord will move mightily amongst these young ones and they would come to know Him personally and/or grow in their walk with Him, that they’ll have a blast doing all the activities, that all would be kept safe (there’s been a few bears spotted recently in the woods where we have all the high ropes activities) and that the sun would shine.

On a completely different note, I’ve recently discovered that pilot training is MUCH cheaper to do on this side of the world so who knows, I may be back here sooner than I thought.  For those of you gasping right now don’t worry, I’ll definitely be home for a year or so first, but may look at just doing my PPL and theory in NZ and then completing the practical side of my CPL etc. elsewhere.

I’m looking at travelling to Banff and Jasper National Parks once Summer Camp’s over with so that’s something exciting to look forward to :)

Hope you all are well and the year is going swimmingly for you – I think of you all often.

Over and out for now,

Love and blessings to all who take the time to read,

Mel

Canada cont...

Thursday 2^nd June to Wednesday 29^th June

Well, we’ve now finished staff training and have a day off before Camp officially begins tomorrow.  We start with Single Mum’s camp (single mums and their kids ranging from 0-16) and then straight into the first week of kiddies after that (8-10 yr olds I think it is).  9 days of full-on camp so will be tiring but good.  So far there’s 333 kids registered for the first week of camp which is great!  We have just over a hundred camp counsellors and then there’s the work crew and all the people who do stuff behind the scenes.  If you’d like a glimpse of what Stillwood’s like then look up www.stillwood.ca

There’s been a bit of sickness going round, probably due to the amount of people all living in one space and the bad weather we’ve been having so for those of you upholding me/this camp in prayer if you could pray for health and energy for the team that would be wonderful and very much appreciated.

Righto, have to dash.  All the best back home.  Thinking of you all amongst all the earthquakeness etc that is going on back home.  I’ve posted up photos from Bolivia at www.intrepidmelbe.weebly.com if you want a squiz.  Unfortunately the laptop kept throwing hissy fits at me so Canada photos aren’t up yet.  Soon…soon… ;P

Much love to you all.  Ciao.

CANADA thus far...

Easter weekend – Saturday 23^rd to Monday 25^th April

Up and off to Chilliwack on Saturday on the Greyhound.  Gina’s dad, George, came into town to pick me up as they live up near the camp around Cultus Lake which is 28km from town.

Sunday went to church for the first time since Costa Rica.  It was great!  Only knew one song but the pastor preached a good message and then afterward we tucked into a turkey dinner (tradition here at Easter apparently) and all filled ourselves to the brim.  Spent the rest of the afternoon tucked up inside as it is cold out (and seems even colder for me going from hot sticky humid Mexico to cold, rainy Canada).

Week of the 26^th to 30^th April

Sorted my social insurance number, took a wander up Teapot Hill and round back to ‘home’.  Great views of the lake and surrounding mountains from up top.  Saw a squirrel on Thursday – so cuuuuttte!!!! Also the first day to wake up to a skiff of snow on them there Canadian hills (brrrr).  We then got four seasons in one day (felt like I was back home… ;P) and ended the day with a win for the Canucks in the 2nd round playoffs - yuss!!! (welcome to Ice Hockey - my new favourite spectator sport) :D

The rest of my time this week was spent uploading (or trying to) photos to my blog.  I finally gave up on this unproductive exercise and found a free website place I could upload them all to instead.  So, if you’d like to see them go to www.intrepidmelbe.weebly.com instead of this blog.  If you click on the title on the home page it will link back into this blog.

Sunday 1^st May 2011

Potluck lunch after church then we were off to Harrison Springs.  Lovely place.  40mile long lake, mountains, thermal springs etc (much like Lake Wakatipu before all the tourism).  The day was gorgeous and sunny (finally!) and although it wasn’t quite warm enough for shorts it was nice to be warmed through for the first time all week.

After our wee excursion it was time to pack and head off to camp where I’ll be living for the next few months.  Met the ‘A’ team (people who help set up camp for the summer) and we got put into our cabins – I’m with 3 girls, all at least 5 years or more younger than me but they seem mature for their age which is good.

Monday 2^nd May to Thursday 2^nd June

Okay, so it’s now the 2^nd of June and as you can see by my lack of writing, not much excitingness (great grammar right there! ;P) has happened since I’ve been here.  In terms of wildlife, I’ve seen some deer (a couple around camp even) and one night on our way to dinner we passed through some trees where there were a couple of squirrels chattering away and playing tag with each other round and round a tree.  We were only about a metre from them – they are soooo cauuuttte!!!  They must be the cutest vermin ever created!  There was a black bear spotted a couple of days ago behind the office so a warning was sent out to those of us working in the bush that day, and someone saw a coyote on their way to work the other day.  Other than that I’ve seen one bunny and lots of funny little birds that grace us with their presence around camp each day.  The people are about as interesting as the animals themselves.  Lots of jokes regarding accents (I’m usually on the end of those..sigh…;P) and the core group of A-Team that’s been here are a pretty cool bunch, despite most of them being quite a bit younger.

The Snelgroves have kindly let me borrow one of their bikes so I’ve been on a few bike rides, a couple into town (the first of which I took a wrong turn on the way back and ending up biking an extra 17ish kms, so about 73km rather than 56km – not fun!) and a couple up into Columbia Valley where you can see the border between the US and Canada in the mountains.  It just looks like a firebreak does back home – just a strip of nothingness between the two sides of trees on the mountain slope – crazy!

Last weekend and this weekend I’m doing a high-ropes accreditation course so I can work up in the trees during summer – fun!  Last weekend we learnt all the basics of rope tying, belaying techniques, how to rescue someone up high on the wires in between the trees (not for the faint of heart let me assure you) and how to instruct at the low zipline 30ft (10m).  This Saturday we’re going to be concentrating on the high 60ft (20m) zipline and the ‘leap of faith’ (trapeze that you jump onto in midair from a platform high above the ground in the trees).  Then on Sunday we get tested on everything so will be a full-on day.  Looking forward to it though, it’s a lot of fun.  Although, if this wind doesn’t die down that could make things a little more interesting than anticipated…

This week I’ve also learnt how the low ropes course (what we would call a confidence course or team-building exercise course) and archery range are run (very similar set-up to a rifle range back home) and have helped out belaying at the indoor wall, which is fun because you get a chance to climb in between the groups coming through, plus it’s great to see the smiles on the kids’ faces when they make it all the way to the top (especially because it’s a pretty tough wall to climb, even not many adults make it up successfully).

A few of us went swing dancing on Tuesday in the top of someone’s barn (yes it was big and fat and red like the ones in the movies) which was heaps of fun.  I was beginning to feel dance-deprived so now I’ve had my ‘hit’ for the week/month lol…  It’s pretty much like our Rock ‘n’ Roll back home; definitely not like West Coast Swing which is what I thought I would find here on the west coast of Canada where it originated and is meant to be everywhere (haven’t seen it yet and no one seems to know what I’m talking about when I mention it – hmmm odd…)

Not sure how much of Canada I will get to see now as the work I was meant to get here has not eventuated as planned and now most of what I’m doing at camp is voluntary rather than paid.  I haven’t looked elsewhere for work because there’s only a few weeks til camp begins so there’s not a decent amount of time for me to be able to give any employer even for casual work.  Bit of a pity but I guess it just means I will have to save my pennies again when I get back home so I can return here one day to have a look around.

Righto, think that’s about all for now.  The food and lodgings are good, although now we’ve had more staff arrive so things are getting pretty cramped in the cabin and with the change from business and youth groups to school groups the food isn’t nearly as good as when we first arrived.  But I have a roof over my head, it’s warm inside (if not out) and my belly is full unlike so many unfortunate people in this world so there’s nothing to complain about really is there :)

That is all for now.  Til next time, take care all and I hope those of you back home are wrapped up nice and warm as the brunt of winter begins.  It is supposed to be the beginning of summer here but at the moment you would think we were in the Southern Hemisphere rather than the Northern right now…

PHOTOS OF MY JOURNEY!!!

So, I FINALLY have my photos up for all to view.  However, you will not see them on my blog.  Unfortunately blogspot is having serious issues with the server rejecting peoples’ photos when they try to upload them to the site so instead I have created my own website elsewhere where you can view each part of the journey.  Please visit www.intrepidmelbe.weebly.com to view.  There is a link on the home page to direct you back to here if you so wish :D

At the camp I’m living at in Canada we only have satellite link to the internet so unfortunately I have not had the time to name all the photos yet as I can only do that when I’m on computers offsite somewhere, but they will be tagged eventually… :)  There are also none up of Canada yet which is a pity because it is BEAUTIFUL here.